APRIL 27: The Brewers have announced the signing, adding that they’ll make a corresponding move later today.
APRIL 24: The Brewers have agreed to a deal with lefty Gio Gonzalez, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). He’ll earn $2MM for his work the rest of the season with up to $2MM more in available incentives.
The incentives package reflects changes in modern pitching usage. It’s a points-based system, as Jon Heyman of MLB Network first tweeted. Gonzalez can earn two points every time he makes an appearance of three or more innings and one point for all other appearances. He’ll receive $333,333 upon accumulating his 25th, 30th, 35th, and 40th points and then $333,334 with his 45th and 50th, Robert Murray of The Athletic explains on Twitter.
Gonzalez, who recently moved to CAA Baseball, triggered an opt-out clause in the minor-league deal he signed late in camp with the Yankees. When the New York club declined to add him to its MLB roster, Gonzalez returned to the open market. While his new contract won’t come with the same amount of upside that was available in the prior one, it will put him back in the majors and provide some guaranteed earnings.
Gonzalez should be ready to step right into the Brewers’ rotation. He worked 15 innings over three starts with the Yankees organization, allowing ten earned runs but posting a solid 19:6 K/BB ratio. The Brew Crew obviously liked what it saw well enough to commit some resources to adding Gonzalez to its staff.
It’s a nice move at this stage of the season for the Brewers, who’ve had several rotation issues crop up early. Gonzalez is assuredly not the pitcher he once was at 33 years of age, but has still been capable of solid mound work in recent years. He’s also one of the game’s most durable starters. While he’s not exactly known for his inning-to-inning steadiness, Gonzalez is a good bet to make his scheduled starts and eat up some frames.
Gonzalez has taken the ball 283 times since the start of the 2010 season, a track record bettered by only a few other starters. Over seven seasons with the Nationals, Gonzalez turned in over twelve hundred innings of 3.62 ERA pitching with 8.7 K/9 against 3.5 BB/9. His best seasons came earlier in his tenure, though he did slip in one final gem of a year in 2018 — overcoming the underwhelming peripherals that suggested some good fortune and regression in the ensuing season.
While he did indeed take a step back in 2018, Gonzalez was still capable of 171 frames of 4.21 ERA ball. He was particularly effective in his final five outings, which came with Milwaukee, turning in 25 1/3 innings over which he allowed just six earned runs on 14 base hits with a 22:10 K/BB ratio.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
well that was quick
Considering it should have happened 3 months ago, not really.
3 months ago he was asking for way more money.
And he was being advised by Boras at the time, asking for the boat load……
Shouldnt have signed him at all they have the pitching in house already. In about two weeks wont need him at all
Worst ERA in the NL and lowest number of innings pitched by starters.
Lol funny cuz it’s pretty obvious he’s not even enough. That good offense and great bullpen is gonna get handcuffed by your terrible rotation
The Brewers and Yankees farms line up nicely for a prospect swap. The Brewers have several decent middle infield players and the Yankees are drowning in pitching prospects. I know it will never happen but they could keep their respective youth movements going by swapping a few prospects.
4th place, but at least they tried this year
id be surpised if they finished worse then 3rd at this point.
They should do all contracts this way.
I’d like to see half season contracts, it would be fun to see guys hit free agency mid season
Agreed! That should be something the players go for in the next CBA. Put some limits on it though. Something like you have to be over 35 or have declared to be retiring at the end of the year. Allow aging superstars past their prime a better chance to get a ring. Players like Beltre, Cabrera, and Nelson Cruz should be given every chance to get a ring. Very interesting idea.
Lol watch the poll two posts below change
What was it showing prior to this article.?
Barf
Barfolomew, is that you?? How is Lone Starr doing these days??
Raspberry! There’s only one man who would DARE give me the raspberry!!
How would he know? Lone Starr went off and got married. Barf is just fine without him. Bexause he is a mog and he is his own best friend!
So they now have four #4s and a #5. They are way to reliant on their bullpen.
Worked for the yankees to win 100 last year
The Yankees SP was actually good last year. It ranked 4th in fWAR, 10th in FIP, 8th in xFIP, 7th in K/9, 8th best BB/9, and 8th in SIERRA
This includes having a sub par 2nd half from their Ace
An “ace” doesn’t have a sub par “half”. Those are called number 4’s.
I guess Chris Sale is no longer an ace then by that theory..
Just because he’s the #1 starter doesn’t make him an ace. Sale was an Ace, could still be but at this point he has not been. And it’s possible he may never be again. I said possible not probable before you jump all over me.
Absolutely agree
The issue is that Burnes and Woodruff are not starting pitchers. They do not have enough to get through a batting order 2-3 times. They need to be relievers. Put them in the pen at the back end and they will thrive like they did last year. Having a back end of the bullpen of Hader, JJ, Junior, Woody, Burnes is pretty solid imo. They can rear back and blow everyone away those two. Now, i say go out there and get Keuchel. He would fit so well at the top of that rotation leading this staff. Anderson has pitched great and could be back to his 2017 self. Time will tell. Davies looks solid, and Chacin i still have confidence in. I still think they should go out and trade for Marcus Stroman. This rotation is do-able for the Brewers.
1) Keuchel
2) Stroman
3) Chacin
4) Davies
5) Anderson/Peralta/Gio
maybe im reaching but i think this is possible, but one this is for sure, woody and burnes NEED to be in the pen where they thrived last season.
They need to wait and see how Jimmy Nelson comes back before making any major trades. Might have a boost without making trades. Although I do agree that Keuchel would be a great pickup for the top of the rotation.
Nelson wont be able to pitch like he did in 2017 in terms of innings. His innings will be really really restricted
By the time he comes back, he’ll only have enough time this season to pitch around that restricted number of innings, anyway.
He’s not coming back. That is pure fiction. Brutal, brutal injury that most throwing athletes never recover from let alone return to anything remotely like the level of a difference making MLB starting pitcher.
Dumb response. He’s already throwing.
He is about to start his rehab assignment in a few days. While I’m sure the Brewers will be cautious, I haven’t read anything about them restricting his innings yet. Although it will all depend on how his arm will respond to his first few starts back.
great, just wait for when he pitches effectively in the majors….you’ll be waiting a very long time
Dumber response
Throwing and pitching in an MLB game are two very different things.
Josh Johnson did a lot of throwing for the Padres. Never suited up for a game with them in 2 years.
Until Nelson returns to the mound during an actual game brewers would be stupid to put all their eggs in one basket waiting for him to return.
Nelson hasn’t pitched since 2017, they absolutely will limit his workload.
Clearly they aren’t putting all their eggs in one basket considering they just made a signing. Nelson is expected to be back in the rotation in just a few weeks. It’s extremely rare for teams to make trades this early in the season so the brewers shouldn’t overextend because Stroman and others will still be there when you figure out what Nelson can deliver. Also, all signs point to Keuchel waiting until after the draft to sign since he won’t have draft compensation attached to him.
With all the trash and vomit that comes from every keystroke you make on this site, the more I’m convinced that something traumatic happened to you at Miller Park when you were young. Was it some strange attraction to the Racing Sausages that you felt? Or did Bernie Brewer touch you? There’s therapy groups for pathetic people like you.
Agree re Nelson, and not sure Keuchel is affordable. Price was right on Gio.
it’s too bad they didn’t realize their rotation was crap in the off-season
What are you smoking
Hahaha. Gio is brutal. He fits right in with the rest of hat garbage staff.
He’s an innings eater, which the Brewers need right now because they are getting abbreviated starts left and right and running the bullpen ragged. Yes, Gio isn’t an ace, but he still helps the Brewers pitching staff.
$50 you can’t hit him
He probably can’t, but I don’t think an average fan’s ability to hit off of a professional pitcher is a good way to gauge whether said pitcher is good or not.
The Brewers 40 is full, no?
Who gets DFAd?
Alex Wilson, Matt Albert, Claudio, Wilkerson…take your pick, they are all bad.
If only Aguilar had an option left. He’s been garbage this year and needs regular at bats to get right. But ya you have to assume one of the younger, underperforming bullpen guys as the hope is that Gio will eat some innings and lessen the load on the bullpen anyways.
Claudio is a stud compared to the rest em. Wilson and alberts are horrid
David Freitas maybe
Nottingham?
Saladino
Shoulda gone Keuchel.
Mets will sign DK. GG was too much of a coward to pitch in NYC.
He originally signed with the Yankees…. ummm?
Gio was afraid to play in NY. FACT.
Huh?
I know this might sound crazy, but maybe the Mets never offered him a contract, or they offered him a smaller deal than what the Brewers are giving him him?
So it’s all about the $ vs winnng for this guy
He played with the Brewers last year too, and it’s not like the Mets are doing drastically better than the Brewers. The Mets have the same win total as the Brewers, but 2 fewer losses since they’ve played more games so far this year.
Did you honestly just insinuate that that the Mets have a better chance to win than the Brew Crew?
Every night of the week, other than when the Mets don’t play. And with the possible exception of when Vargas pitches. I’m not even a Mets fan — do you honestly believe the Brewer rotation stacks up with the Mets?
CF, RF — advantage MIL. Every other spot, not so much.
The brewers bullpen and offense is light years ahead of the mets. The brewers are a team that was one game away from the WS last year. The mets are a joke
yeah, that’s why he signed with the Yankees, because he was afraid of NY
He was afraid to pitch in NY? He pitched in 3 games in Yankee stadium. Held the Yankees to a .197 batting average. 1 and 1 with a 4.58 era… Mets had a .185 batting average against him. 1.87 era and an 11 and 2 record.
It doesn’t look like he was scared.
Don’t the Yankees play in NY?
Good!
If Nelson returns soon, a rotation of Chacin – Davies – Gio – Anderson – Nelson may not be the best in baseball but more solid than where they started. The three young guys weren’t ready for prime time but could be very effective in the bullpen.
put a fork in Nelson
This might be the best case scenario especially for a team built to win now. If they were a year away then absolutely put the young trio out there to take their lumps. But put Burnes and Peralta in the pen and that solidifies the gap to Hader
Lol
Hi are you lonely?
It isn’t just the pitching. The last 22 runs the Brewers have scored have come by way of the home run. That doesn’t put a lot of pressure on either opposing pitchers or the defense. Sure they can bludgeon teams with power all over the line-up, but solo shots don’t add up to a lot of runs. They have homered 7 times against the Red Birds in the series so far, and are down two games. Hoping that Peralta, Burnes, and Woodruff would succeed in starting roles was highly suspect, they just don’t have the track record. Granted the Brewers’ schedule has been tough, although they have played plenty of home games. They may get well today against Waino, but when Chacin is your ace, you better be scoring a lot of runs. They certainly can, but it is hard to always outscore your opponent.
Another solo shot already.
…and another bad game by their starter and another loss.
Every milb sp that is promoted to the majors who is initially used in the bullpen shouldn’t be relegated to be stuck there. Not every sp prospect has immediate success in the mlb rotation, despite success in the bullpen. All 3 of the kids still have a good chance of being potential #2-4 sp’s. Yes, they were good in relief but there’s still starter stuff with all of them.
bad signing for a bad pitcher
If I were the player, and this was the structure of my contract, I’d want bonus points for long starts that save the pen. Maybe 1 extra point for going 6 and allowing 3 or fewer, and another point for going 8…
That could be stretching it, but one additional point for 7+ innings sounds good.
So if I had him going to Milwaukee on the free agent contest… does this count?
why they never signed mike fiers or marco estrada still remains a mystery to me. I know that they are not performing too well this year but they have in the past. It might have given the brewers some much-needed depth for the rotation if anything else.
Take one. Or both.
Please.
They had those 2… theres a reason they dont play there anymore
Interesting, and show’s you an unanticipated flaw of the original agreement with the Yankees, which may have inadvertently created a disincentive to activate and use him.. Bringing him up cost $3M on Day 1, Then you want to see if he’s going to be effective as a starter, so you pay him $300K per start. If he bombs or can’t go beyond, say, five IP, he goes into the bullpen, but he’s going to get at least a few tries, so he’s moved up his guarantee past what the Brewers could possibly be required to pay him. A better contract, I think, might have been the $3M guarantee and a per start incentive after, say, four starts. By that time, at least you know what you’d have and how to utilize him.
Called it
I like Gio but laugh at all the K/BB references. If pitchers learned how to pitch, they’d realize getting the batter to hit a ground ball on the first pitch will in the end save on the pitch count. Obviously walks can’t be tolerated but the overthrowing and reliance on getting strikeouts is hurting their arms.
Totally agreed. The Cardinals young guys, for example, too often rack up decent K numbers, but every strikeout takes 6+ pitches. They’re all gassed in the 5th.
^^ this. I love Flaherty, but he’s consistently over 100 pitches by the end of the 5th if he even makes it that long. Flaherty has ace stuff, but goes to a full count with every batter before getting a strikeout or something. That’s what will keep him from dominating.
Hi
They better get more starters than that if they want to compete.
45 days/45 points and we’re back in business.
Not really relevant. But man, do I love that episode.
Way to go Wilpons couldn’t get Gio for $2-4 mil dummy’s
Someone explain to me why Halos did not pick him up?
Heard our local radio station explaining why we didn’t go after Gio, he did not meet the criteria listed below
1. Must have had Tommy John surgery last year
2. Must have had E.R.A. in the 5.00- 6.00 range
3. Possibly out of baseball past few years
4. Willing to work cheap
Our local radio heads get to talk with the G.m and pass along some info to the locals, everyone is saying 2020 new stadium and Get a few free agents, 2021 go all out with the farm hands that are ready and a mixture of free agents. Have followed Gio’s career when with Oakland and wish him luck.
again my A’s are caught twiddling their thumbs. starters can barely go 5 but let’s not sign anyone.
I think baseball front offices are running like true boardroom businesses now. They set a budget from the outset and negotiate with those they feel can fill a need without eating up too much of their available funds and the old way of waiting out the market is just a horrible approach. Budgets are firmer than ever you hear GMs mention the word budget constantly. How much they can spend on free agents and saving some for the trade deadline. Overprice yourself and you get left behind and nobodies even interested at a “discount”. No more asking for the moon and settling just under it. Be realistic or teams move on afraid to lose guys on the market that are being reasonable
When Jimmy Nelson comes back their rotation is alright.